Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Back again to Penney's to try again to capture a decent picture of the boys together. Even though we could not for the life of us get both of them to smile and look at the camera at once, these ended up pretty cute.

My mom had sewn this smocked outfit for Mikko's first Easter, so we decided it made the perfect heirloom hand-me-down for Alrik's first Easter.

As a humorous comparison, here's Mikko in the same outfit at 8 months old, 2 months younger than Alrik above. I remember we had to take Mikko's "Easter" pictures in February before he outgrew the romper and burst the seams!

That's a Jane Austen-esque dress I sewed, just to complete the homemade circle. When I look at this picture, I keep thinking, Clearly we both need to grow more hair.

Find sites to link up your Wordless Wednesday post
at my super-cool collection of Wordless Wednesday linkies,
and let me know if you have one to add.
You can also link up a thumbnail from your post below!

17
comments:

Holy heck, your kids are still cuuute as ever, and I still LOVE them to pieces... Flippin' adorable. I'm not sure when I'm going to stop having that "What the heck" reaction at Alrik's age, but every time you post it... It shocks and scares me a little bit. They grow up WAY too fast. Happy Easter to you, the boys and, Sam. :)

I've been so out of the loop lately...look at Mikko's haircut! I second what Melissa says about Alrik looking like you and Mikko looking like Sam. These pictures are so adorable. I love the sweet outfits you have on both boys too...the polos with comfy pants. It makes them look so snuggly!

Aww, these turned out great! I liked the first ones, too, though. We really need to get our acts together to have more photos taken of our whole family. I keep saying this, and then it just doesn't make it to the top of our priority list. Plus, it's just so expensive. Argh! I guess it's time to bust out the tripod and the timer delay function and just do it ourselves!

@Melissa: Aren't genetics funny? I remember feeling so weird that Mikko looked nothing like me when he was born (though now I can see traces). It's funny to watch what traits will come through the line.

@I Thought I Knew Mama: Thank you! I'm glad we went back, too. Now we'll just have to go again to get some more of (a) Mikko separate and (b) the whole family. Ha ha! Oh, well, at least it's fairly easy to schedule sittings.

@Tmuffin.com: I cut it the night before the pictures and almost started crying that I'd cut it too short! But then I thought it looked pretty cute after all. It makes him look so grown up! About the outfits, I'm so glad we were smart and put them on them RIGHT before the pictures, and then ate lunch AFTER. Those white shirts didn't make it another half hour. ;)

@Amy Reiswig: Now, we haven't had the bestest experiences there, so I don't want to talk it up too much, but JC Penney is a very affordable option (imo, compared to conventional photography studios or independent photographers). You can almost always get a coupon for a free sitting fee + $4 sheets are now standard. If you can't get the sitting fees free from a coupon, you can buy into their portrait club for a year and then they are (helpful if you're going to have multiple people in the shot). Sheets = 1 11x13, 1 8x10, 2 5x7, 4 3.5x5, 8 wallets. They have packages and fancier custom collage sheets and such that we always ignore; I find the a la carte pricing to get us out of there for ~$40-$80 (for sending to all grandparents/siblings as well), depending on how long it's been since our last portrait session. :) I imagine the price is lower if you're shooting fewer kids and/or sending prints to fewer people. You can also book your session online, so you can choose a good post-nap, post-meal time where people will likely be in a good mood. They also email you the low-res proofs so you can post them on your website (et voilà) or email to family.

Since I sound like I AM talking them up, I'll just point out what I DON'T like: The photographers are a mixed bag in terms of experience and personality. Sometimes they're good with (your) kids, sometimes not so much. They really push you to buy the upsells, though you can ignore them, as I said. They have a limited number of frames they'll allow you (20, I think?), so you have to fit all your poses and combinations and outfit changes into that number. They won't just keep snap-snap-snapping hoping to get a good smile; they'll pause and realign, which can be death to capturing a good expression with babies & kids. (Ask me how I know this. Alrik smiled SO MUCH when she wasn't shooting — ugh!) I also find that other photographers' photos are more original and more professional-looking; that said, when I've gotten our pictures taken by a real pro, I've been shocked at the price (sitting fee + mondo amounts for every single print). I like to do that occasionally for the aesthetics of it, but JCP comes through for us for regular sittings.

Ok, enough of a book? Plus, I should come to Portland and capture you guys outdoors for FREE! :)

Sooooo cute! The old photos of Mikko exploding out of that romper are just killing me - he was such a chub!!

I also freak out and cry over Joe's haircuts. Mind you, cutting MY hair doesn't bother me much at all. But Joe's sweet curls! I'm still recovering from a business like cut he got about a year ago and has finally grown out. Now it's long and ragged and he looks like a disheveled hippy, but that still seems far preferable to the grown-up, super-square businessman cut he had before.

Just curious: Do you use anything in Mikko's hair to deal with tangles?

What cuties! We were planning Easter pics, then my son scratched his face in the night, and we discovered he had a latex allergy when the bandaid I put on the scratch left a bigger rash than the original scratch. It's almost gone, but it's pretty much too late to do pictures. Our Christmas pictures fell through too. I think I'll just do random spring pictures next time his haircut looks nice and he doesn't have dirt under his fingernails or too many visible cuts and scratches and bruises from playing outside...so when he's like 20, right?

sign up for hobo mama news

meet hobo mama

Riding the rails with my husband, Crackerdog Sam, and our hobo kids, Mikko Lint Picker (born June 2007), Alrik Irontrousers (born May 2011), and Karsten (born October 2014). Trying every day to parent intentionally and with grace.